


Little Warrior

by sanctuary_for_all



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, But Gamora's Life Is Angst, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Plus A Little During, Pre-Movie(s), So It's Not My Fault
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-20
Updated: 2014-08-20
Packaged: 2018-02-14 00:52:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2171712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctuary_for_all/pseuds/sanctuary_for_all
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It had been so long since she’d heard her father’s voice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Little Warrior

**Author's Note:**

> I left the theater desperate for some Gamora backstory. This isn't nearly enough, of course, but I tried.

It had been so long since she’d heard her father’s voice. 

“This was the blade of my father, and his mother before him.” He had smiled as he said it, his arm strong and sure as he swept the sharpening stone over the length of the blade. “One day, I will pass it on to you.”

Gamora had looked up at her father, confused as only an innocent, foolish child could be. “But what will you use then, Father?”

His expression had remained so kind. No mercy for your enemy, he had always taught her, but for his only child he had always possessed an almost infinite wealth of patience. “I will be gone, my little warrior. Whether time or battle take me, I will have no need for a physical weapon in the world beyond.”

Death had only been a story to her then, tales that the old warriors told to the young, but there had been a spark of fear in her young heart. “You can’t die,” she’d insisted, bunching her small hands into fists. “I’ll be there, and I’ll save you.”

He had set the blade down, then, and taken her face gently in his hands. “Death can have as much of a purpose as life,” he had told her, the same tone he used for all instruction. “As long as your death has meaning, there is honor in it.”

Though there were tears in her eyes, she had nodded to show she understood.

She’d had no idea.

000

There was no meaning in death. No honor. Only blood and burning, the sounds of her family and friends falling like so much meat. Warriors were swatted away like insects, her mother and the rest of the council publicly murdered to further demoralize the people. Her father, torn apart for sport.

Gamora remembered collapsing to her knees near his corpse, listening to Thanos laugh at the foolish child who could only weep while everything she knew burned around her. She had screamed, then, lunging for him, not caring that she had just ended her life. Living did not matter, but her hatred and pain moved her in a fury.

He stopped laughing, then, but not out of fear. Thanos had stared down at her small form, quivering with rage, a coolly calculating light in his eyes. “You are more of a warrior than I realized,” he said, sounding thoughtful. “Perhaps you will be of some use after all.”

000

Thanos would not let her die. When she fought, he brought in innocents to kill. When other “daughters” were brought in, Thanos punished the girls for any breath of compassion Gamora showed them. Her death would have been pointless, true, but in Thanos’s hands even her life meant nothing more than pain. To survive, she had to stop caring. To stop feeling.

When she heard that Thanos planned to sacrifice a planet to Ronan’s madness, she knew she had failed. She was no longer desperate to die, her old hope to join her parents nothing more than a long-ignored ache, but a flicker of feeling began to burn its way through the numbness. She had to do _something_ to stop this.  Something that would not leave her dead and cold, as pointless as all of the other corpses left in her wake.

She tried not to think of how her father would react, seeing what his little warrior had become.

000

The destruction of the Collector’s archives was painfully clarifying.

The numbness had burned away completely as she staggered out into the relatively clear air, an artifact of terrifying power clutched in her hand. Gamora did not need to think to know exactly what her parents would have done, in her place. For the first time in too long, she had the opportunity to make the same choice they would have.

She would let no one stop her from taking it, not even her reluctant allies.

To her surprise, it was less difficult to persuade them than she’d anticipated. 

000

Gamora was not as surprised to end up here as she should have been. She’d known from the moment she’d piloted that craft out into empty space that death would be waiting at the end of this.

“But Quill, stopping Ronan – it’s impossible.” She could hear genuine despair in Rocket’s voice, even his eternal anger failing him. “You’re asking us to die.”

Quill’s face fell, a hopelessness washing across it that matched the feeling settled deep into her own chest. He turned away, looking fragile for the first time since she had met him. “Yeah, I guess I am.”

Gamora looked at the group of misfits assembled around her. Losers, Quill had called them, and though he had not intended the meaning the word choice was accurate. Rocket was right – they had no chance against Ronan.

But there could be purpose in death, as well as life. Perhaps they could buy the planet time. Perhaps they could inspire someone else to a more successful attack.

If nothing else, she would give her friends the benefit of her sword arm. When they fell, they would not fall alone. 

_As long as your death has meaning, there is honor in it._

Gamora stood, facing the people she had slowly grown to trust. “I have lived most of my life surrounded by my enemies.” She searched for the words her father might have said. “I would be grateful to die surrounded by my friends.”

When she spoke, she swore she could almost hear his voice.

**Author's Note:**

> Come check out my original short fiction on my [blog](http://jennifferwardell.blogspot.com) or say hi to me on [Tumblr](http://sanctuaryforalluniverses.tumblr.com)!


End file.
